You are currently viewing the old forums. We have upgraded to a new NFL Forum. This old forum is being left as a read-only archive.
Please update your bookmarks to our new forum at forums.footballsfuture.com.

The 6'5" 225 pound Sophomore is undoubtedly one of the all-time great pass catchers for Texas A&M. Evans finished the 2013 season averaging 20.2 yards per catch on 69 receptions. He caught 13 fewer passes compared to his Freshman season, but managed to tack on 289 more yards. His 1,394 yards and 12 receiving touchdowns in 2013 are both school records. Mike quickly won over fans and continued to be a favorite with his toughness on the outside and jaw dropping catches. His effective run-blocking and absolute hate for going out of bounds to avoid being tackled was something that was great to see from such a young player. His career in the Maroon and White will wrap up with 151 receptions, 2,499 total yards, 17 touchdowns, and an average of 16.9 yards per catch. Insane numbers from an insanely talented Aggie who is just scratching the surface of how good he can really be at his position.

Quote:

Big, is the only way to describe Texas A&M receiver Mike Evan and his play on the field for the Aggies over his career. Evans is a former high school basketball star who first played football in his senior year of high school. He measures in at 6-foot-5 and 225 pounds which is gigantic for most receivers. The 20 year old redshirt sophomore elected to enter the 20 NFL Draft after an amazing two years at Texas A&M. After a redshirt year, Evan had 82 receptions for 1,105 yards and five touchdowns in 2012 while earning freshman All-SEC honors. His sophomore campaign saw him become a big playmakers and his QB Johnny Manziel's favorite target amassing 69 receptions for 1394 yards and 12 TDs. Evans had his best games against some of the best opponents in the SEC. He abused Alabama's secondary, catching seven passes for a then career high 279 yards and a touchdown. He also torched secondary, catching 11 catches for 287 yards and four touchdowns (both career highs).

Strengths

Mike Evans biggest strength is his size. He towers over every cornerback and the Aggies took advantage of this often. When Manziel was in trouble he would look to his monstrous receiver. Evans has large hands and an impressive ability to locate and go after the football. His tape is filled with throws that Evans is heavily contested but he comes down with it. He excels at catching the back shoulder throws. He has impressive body control able to maneuver himself between the ball and the defender and able to adjust in air to land in bounds. He is a deceptive route runner. He does a nice job of fooling defenders with head fakes and quick shimmies of the hip. Evans seems to understand how to find holes in zone coverage. His size also helps him fight through press coverage. He also understands well how to get open when the play breaks down which was a huge asset with a QB like Johnny Manziel.

Quote:

Evans size also makes him incredibly hard to tackle for many of the smaller corners. Texas A&M routinely got the ball to him on quick throws where he could bully the smaller defensive backs, break a tackle and have room to run. He has good balance through contact and a nice stiff arm. Physicality is something he seems to enjoy. With a great ability to get yards after contact it isn't hard to see why he averaged a superb 20.2 yards per reception.

The final advantage of his size is as a blocker. Evans does an excellent at sealing the corner for outside run plays. He keeps his hands inside the defender to avoid holding penalty and just bullies the corners and safeties he is responsible for blocking.

Weakness

On tape Evans appears to have only average long speed for a big wide receiver. Evans as a prospect is hurt by his lack of explosiveness or lateral quickness and it shows. He doesn't appear to have a second gear to pull away from man coverage. He is also a poor route runner which might be the biggest concern. A "leggy" athlete he struggles breaking down to make his cut and it takes him far too long to stop his forward momentum. Evan needs quicker footwork in and out of his breaks. He has issues dropping his weight on his cuts which hurt his explosiveness out of his breaks as well. On fades he is too complacent on just heading down the sideline instead of using his size to give him space between his route and the sideline. Creating that space helps decrease the margin of error on the fade throws. These route running issues help explain why he seemingly can disappear in games. When facing a corner with some length he will be shut down as he no longer as the huge physical advantage and lacks an explosiveness to get away.

Overall

Mike Evans is a match up that most offenses will like. He is too tall for most CB, and too fast for most linebackers. He seems like a guy who could be an immediate upgrade to a team's redzone offense and a solid number two receiver. His lack of elite athleticism and precision route running may prevent him from being an elite player in this draft. Evans had some of his biggest plays when his QB began to scramble, not by beating anyone 1-on-1. He does have exceptional skills at locating the ball in flight and has great hands which help his prospects. In the right offense I believe Evans could be a solid player in the NFL for a while. That offense however has to be one that manufactures space between Evans and his defender so he can use his size to gain YAC. Relying on him to get separation in a 1-on-1 match-up would be a mistake. In the NFL he is going to need more than just great hands and great size to be a top caliber player. Regardless with only four years of football experience Evans still has a lot of growth potential as a football player.

Evans best attribute for the NFL will be his aggressiveness. He reminds me some of Boldin in the way he muscles through DBs. He'd be best suited to play in the slot mostly like a Boldin or Colston. Most recent will say he's not fast enough and doesn't fit a need for us, and they'd be right about the first part. However, he would give Smith another big target with great YAC potential, which is a fine fit for this offense. He needs to get much better at route running no doubt, but I don't think that'd be a problem for him. If you ranked him as a TE instead of WR, he'd be ahead of them all, and the way most teams will use him, is probably going to be more like a Jimmy Graham._________________
^ryknowssd on the sig

In his second attempt, Evans blazed to an unofficial 4.46 (he ran an unofficial 4.5 in his first), and considering Evans is 6-foot-5 and 231 pounds, he proved he has size, physicality and top-notch speed.

At this point I'd be shocked if he falls to #23. He's erased most of the knocks on him with his combine performance. I don't see how a team like say Pittsburgh passes on him._________________
^ryknowssd on the sig

Joined: 31 Aug 2011Posts: 7806Location: Hate for the Donkeys is at a mile high

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 8:41 pm Post subject:

bigschmadt00 wrote:

Evans best attribute for the NFL will be his aggressiveness. He reminds me some of Boldin in the way he muscles through DBs. He'd be best suited to play in the slot mostly like a Boldin or Colston. Most recent will say he's not fast enough and doesn't fit a need for us, and they'd be right about the first part. However, he would give Smith another big target with great YAC potential, which is a fine fit for this offense. He needs to get much better at route running no doubt, but I don't think that'd be a problem for him. If you ranked him as a TE instead of WR, he'd be ahead of them all, and the way most teams will use him, is probably going to be more like a Jimmy Graham.

That's interesting in the Graham comparison...when Graham is a WR, it's mostly in 3 & 4 Wr sets...so Evans could be that matchup nightmare and TE substitute in those sets and then play WR2 in normal sets. The issue would be he would need to go to a team with good 1 & 2 WR's so he wouldn't be the focus or have the best CB put on him. Saint's didn't have that but Graham could also be effective from the natural TE position....could Evans? When teams did put a top CB like Talib on Graham he was shut down somewhat....same would likely happen to Evans so a team would likely need a couple good WR's already for him to be super effective.

That wouldn't be KC and I like him but never considered him an option anyway....he'd be a very poor fit and would have real trouble reaching his potential in KC._________________

BroncosFan2010 wrote:

Your Denver hatred is borderline pathological. I don't think my girlfriend cheating on me would cause me as much hate as you have for Denver.